Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The speaker is an unidentified person, implied to be male, facing death from a savage foe. McKay constructs the poem as the speaker's address to his allies, and the many first person plural pronouns (us, we, our) create a sense of fellowship between the speaker and his allies.
Form and Meter
Iambic pentameter (five beats or stressed syllables per line, usually ten or eleven syllables), with a "Shakespearean" rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG
Metaphors and Similes
"like hogs / Hunted and penned" - Simile comparing the speaker and his allies to pigs if they yield to their enemy
"the mad and hungry dogs," "the monsters," "the murderous, cowardly pack" - extended metaphor comparing the enemy to dogs and nonhuman creatures
"the open grave" - metaphor for death
Alliteration and Assonance
"hogs Hunted" - alliteration
"must meet" - alliteration
Irony
Genre
Sonnet
Setting
Unspecified
Tone
Resolute and steadfast, with elevated and rousing language
Protagonist and Antagonist
The speaker denounces his antagonist: the "common foe."
Major Conflict
The major conflict of the poem is the Manichean conflict of the speaker and his kinsmen versus their common enemy. Part of the conflict also involves the speaker's need to rally his allies against their foe, and to encourage them in the belief that fighting this fight is worthwhile.
Climax
True to the Shakespearean sonnet form, where the resolution comes in the sonnet's final couplet, the climax of the poem comes in its last two lines, where the speaker claims that he and his allies will face their enemy.
Foreshadowing
Understatement
In light of the previous characterizations of "dogs" and "monsters," the reference to "the common foe" in line 9 understates the danger and savagery of their enemy, perhaps in order to depict a more manageable opponent as the speaker begins to rally his "kinsmen."
Allusions
"Precious blood" not "shed in vain" potentially alludes to Christ's death on the cross, depicting the speaker and his allies as Christ-like martyrs.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
"precious blood may not be shed" refers not just to the loss of blood but to death
Personification
Hyperbole
The speaker's description of his enemy as a great mass of "monsters" dealing "their thousand blows" may be read as an exaggerated depiction used for purposes of characterization.
Onomatopoeia
"bark" replicates the short and hard noise that a dog makes
